logo
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Subscribe
  • Webinars
    • Upcoming Webinars
    • Complimentary Webinars
    • Premium On-Demand Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Would You Hire an Ex-Felon? The Life Sentence of Being “Locked Out” of Employment

Shafaq Hasan
February 20, 2015
Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print

Background check

February 18, 2015; Waco Tribune-Herald

How many lawyers would don the proverbial orange jumpsuit and quite literally get into the shoes of their clients? Kent McKeever, a nonprofit attorney in Texas, spent last Lent dressing as an inmate in solidarity with those who are imprisoned. It was on this last day of wearing the suit that McKeever met Juan Morales, a recently released felon who spent time in prison for a marijuana distribution charge.

“We’re not all bad people,” Morales said.

The chance encounter remained with Keever and ultimately led to the start of a new project working on getting ex-convicts employed once they are released back into society.

McKeever, along with Mission Waco’s Meyer Center for Urban Ministries, a group that specializes in providing assistance to the poor, initiated an advocacy program “Fair Chance Hiring Policy” on Wednesday, the first day of Lent, to encourage employers in the Waco area and beyond to hire ex-convicts.

The Ministry group ordered orange T-shirts (currently available for purchase) with the words, “We’re not all bad people,” and is encouraging purchasers to wear them during the Lenten season, which ends in April. The shirts have Morales’s prisoner number on the front along with his quote.

Many of the individuals the Meyer Center already helps are ex-convicts.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

“We haven’t really been to the prisons, but prisoners are coming to us,” said Jerrod Clark, a social worker at the center. “They’re imprisoned now. They’re not locked up, but locked out.”

As one can imagine, transition from the prison world is not just difficult mentally; it can also be stressful financially. While a prisoner may have left his prison life, his bad deeds unfortunately follow him through his release and on job applications. As mentioned in the Waco Tribune-Herald article, many employers in the area, and certainly nationwide, ask about an applicant’s criminal record on applications and disqualify those who have such a record.

While in some states and cities it is illegal for an employer to discriminate based on an applicant’s criminal record, McKeever believes it is not the government’s place to be enforcing such a rule.

“I just don’t think that’s city government’s job,” he said. “We’re not here to tell employers what to put on their application form. […] Employers have to see it’s in their best interest. We have changed our policies to help ex-offenders and set an example.”

Waco allows ex-convicts to work in the city if more than five years have passed since their conviction. However it does not allow ex-convicts to take jobs “involving vulnerable populations, money or sensitive information.”

Morales, the man who inspired the campaign, has been dealing with the very issues the campaign is trying to solve. He has applied to 15 different warehouses for jobs but could not get an interview at a single one. He makes about $500 a week as a supervisor at a lawn care company, but after child support and other expenses, he only has about $250 per week to live on.

“There’s a lot of talented people out there who want to live a straight life, but it’s hard when nobody helps you,” Morales said. “When I was in there, a lot of people left, then came back. They tried to get a job, but they couldn’t make it. The easiest step is going back to their old ways.”—Shafaq Hasan

Share
Tweet
Share
Email
Print
About the author
Shafaq Hasan

Shafaq Hasan is a Community Builder at NPQ. She is a graduate of Brandeis University where she majored in Art History and spent most of her time working in the office of the student newspaper as the Opinions editor, and later, as an Associate editor. As an undergraduate, she was also a research assistant for the Justice Brandeis Law Project at the Schuster Institute for Investigative Journalism from 2011 to 2014.

More about: InequalityNonprofit NewsPolicies and LawsPolicy

Become a member

Support independent journalism and knowledge creation for civil society. Become a member of Nonprofit Quarterly.

Members receive unlimited access to our archived and upcoming digital content. NPQ is the leading journal in the nonprofit sector written by social change experts. Gain access to our exclusive library of online courses led by thought leaders and educators providing contextualized information to help nonprofit practitioners make sense of changing conditions and improve infra-structure in their organizations.

Join Today
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

Spring-2023-sidebar-subscribe
You might also like
Linking Our Fights to Win: On Combatting Elite Capture
Kitana Ananda and Olúfemi O. Táíwò
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk
No Justice, No Peace of Mind and Body: The Health Impacts of Housing Insecurity for Black Women
Jhumpa Bhattacharya, Maile Chand and Andrea Flynn
Black Women’s Pay Inequity Starts in the School System
Toni A. Wilson
The Human Impact of the Global Refugee Crisis Must Be Understood—And Acted Upon
Anmol Irfan

NPQ Webinars

April 27th, 2 pm ET

Liberatory Decision-Making

How to Facilitate and Engage in Healthy Decision-making Processes

Register Now
You might also like
Linking Our Fights to Win: On Combatting Elite Capture
Kitana Ananda and Olúfemi O. Táíwò
Cancelling Student Debt Is Necessary for Racial Justice
Kitana Ananda
To Save Legal Aid, Expand Public Service Loan Forgiveness
Zoë Polk

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

NPQ-Spring-2023-cover

Independent & in your mailbox.

Subscribe today and get a full year of NPQ for just $59.

subscribe
  • About
  • Contact
  • Advertise
  • Copyright
  • Careers

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.